Happy 151st Birthday, Cheyenne

Did you know Independence Day is also Cheyenne's birthday? July 4, 1867, four months before the Union Pacific Railroad arrived in Cheyenne, surveyor General Greenville Dodge officially named the town and plotted the area

While overlooking what would soon become the "Magic City of the Plains", Dodge planned the development of a four-square-mile area, even angling the streets to give buildings and houses maximum sunlight throughout the year.

Although a stone marker commemorates the site near the present-day corner of Dey Avenue and West Jefferson Road, it was not set by Dodge. The cornerstone was placed on the site in 1890. 151 years later, it lives on as a reminder of Cheyenne's humble beginnings as a frontier outpost on the first transcontinental railroad.